Floating protection barrier gate

ABSTRACT

A protection apparatus protects a harbor or an area in a body of water or adjacent to a body of water. The protection apparatus floats on the body of water, and includes a plurality of barrier units positioned side-by-side, each of the barrier units includes a composite-based durable barrier structure. The barrier structure is configured to hold a net in place in order to protect an area in the body of water or abutting the body of water from waterborne craft. At least one of the barrier units includes a gate that allows passage of waterborne craft into and out of the protected body of water.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to protection barriers and, more particularly, to durable, floating boat barriers that are used to protect areas such as harbors, water regions, or other types of land or water areas from high speed and low speed water craft attack.

B. Description of the Related Art

In the current environment with terrorist activities on the rise, there is a need to protect assets from terrorist attacks. One type of protection device is a floating harbor protection barrier system designed to provide protection to military and commercial harbors from high speed surface boat attacks.

Initial research into harbor protection by the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center led to the development of a mostly mild-steel structure called the Port Security Barrier. The Port Security Barrier consists of three steel pontoons supporting a steel box beam, steel supports for netting, steel braces, and primary netting made up of 1.125 inch diameter nylon 12-plait line with a mesh size of one foot.

Another type of floating barrier device is described in the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center Technical Report TR-2027-SHR, dated September, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as “Technical Report”). As described in the Technical Report, a lightweight floating barrier for defeating a high speed boat attack includes at least one 40-foot-long barrier module with a lightweight glass reinforced plastic (GRP) frame, low density closed cell foam floats, and a capture net woven from high strength Spectra™ line. Each barrier module can be folded for ease in transportation between locations, and assembly and installation of a lightweight floating barrier can be done with unskilled labor using simple tools and support craft.

While the use of GRP for components of a harbor protection barrier is an improvement over the use of a mostly-steel or an all-steel construction for a harbor protection barrier in some respects (e.g., lower maintenance costs), it still has problems associated with not being as structurally strong as the mostly-steel construction, and thereby it does not provide as good a protection or durability as one would get from the mostly-steel construction or all-steel construction of a harbor protection barrier. For example, a test described in the Technical Report (see FIG. 29 of the Technical Report) shows that a GRP protection barrier frame was shattered by a high-speed boat impacting the GRP protection barrier. One can surmise from that test that boats following a lead boat (which impacted the GRP protection barrier) may be able to follow the same path in the water as the lead boat and thereby penetrate into a region protected by one or more GRP protection barriers, which is clearly undesirable.

Furthermore, conventional GRP Port Security barrier modules are not particularly sturdy with respect to dealing with forces due to boat attacks and/or forces due to severe weather conditions.

Also, for an all-steel construction or for a mostly-steel construction of a Port Security barrier, there is a problem in that maintenance costs are very high. For example, when the Port Security barrier is floating in the water, it deteriorates over time due to the sea water that comes in contact with the steel. This leads to rusting, which causes deterioration of the Port Security barrier, thereby making it less structurally sound. While such steel-constructed Port Security barriers typically have a paint coat to partially counter the rusting problem, the conventional Port Security barriers have to be painted fairly often in order to maintain the structural integrity of the paint barrier, which again results in high maintenance costs.

Furthermore, with conventional Port Security barriers, there is a problem associated with coupling two or more harbor protection barrier modules together to protect a large region, such as a harbor. As described in the Technical Report, each protection barrier module is 40 feet long, and thus to protect a length of harbor of 150 feet would require four (4) protection barrier modules coupled together. The conventional method of coupling protection barrier modules to each other is via a loose coupling at the respective ends of adjacent protection barrier modules, typically by coupling a steel cable to respective ends of adjacent protection barrier modules. This loose coupling results in undesired stresses being imparted to individual protection barrier modules as they flop around in the water due to inclement weather conditions such as high wave and high wind conditions. Such a loose coupling between protection barrier modules may result in damage to individual protection barrier modules, with results in an undesired cost associated with repairing protection barrier modules already installed or having to utilize new protection barrier modules to replace protection barrier modules that are damaged beyond repair.

There is also a problem with respect to providing ‘gates’ for allowing friendly boats into a protected area. Current protection barrier structures do not provide for such gates, thereby making it difficult for friendly boats to pass into and out of protected water areas.

The present invention is directed to overcoming or at least reducing the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a protection apparatus that is configured to float on a body of water, and which includes a first composite-based barrier structure, the first composite-based barrier structure configured to hold a first net in place. The protection apparatus also includes a second composite-based barrier structure, the second composite-based barrier structure configured to hold a second net in place. The protection apparatus further includes a third gate structure provided between the first and second composite-based barrier structures and respectively coupled at first and second ends to the first and second composite-based barrier structures. The protection apparatus protects an area in the body of water or abutting the body of water from waterborne craft, and the protection apparatus allows passage into and out of the area in the body of water by way of the third gate structure.

According to another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a protection apparatus that is configured to float on a body of water, and which includes a left-side barrier structure that is configured to hold a first net in place. The protection apparatus also includes a right-side barrier structure that is configured to hold a second net in place. The protection apparatus further includes a third gate structure provided between the left- and right-side barrier structures and respectively coupled at first and second ends to the left- and right-side barrier structures. The protection apparatus protects an area in the body of water or abutting the body of water from waterborne craft, and the protection apparatus allows passage into and out of the area in the body of water by way of the third gate structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing advantages and features of the invention will become apparent upon reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a harbor protection barrier according to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows components making up a truss that may be utilized in a gate harbor protection barrier according to second or third embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a truss that may be utilized in a gate harbor protection barrier according to the second or third embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows a gate harbor protection barrier according to the second or third embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 5 shows a gate harbor protection barrier with nets and net stations and wire rigging installed, according to the second or third embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 6 shows a harbor protection system that utilizes a plurality of non-gate harbor protection barriers and a gate harbor barrier protection according to the second or third embodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 7 shows a truss that may be utilized in a gate harbor protection barrier according to a fourth embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will be described in detail below, with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention according to at least one embodiment is directed to a composite harbor protection barrier system (HPB), which is a floating harbor protection barrier system that provides protection to military and commercial harbors or other types of land or water regions from high speed surface boat attacks and other types of surface attacks made by waterborne craft and hovercraft.

The HPB according to a first embodiment is very similar to the HPB as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655, entitled “Protection Barrier Apparatus”, which is assigned to the same assignee as this application, and which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.

The HPB according to the first embodiment is fabricated out of composite materials for practically all of the portion of the protection barrier structure that is disposed above the water line, and it is constructed primarily out of foam materials for the pontoon structure that floats on the water and that provides the structural capability for each HPB protection barrier unit to float on the water. The HPB is designed to have a low life cycle maintenance cost as compared to conventional structures, while at the same time it is designed to provide an acceptable boat stopping capability to protect military and/or commercial harbors or other types of regions that abut a body of water (or to protect a water region or a land region totally surrounded by water).

The HPB can also be used to protect a structure surrounded by a body of water, such as an off-shore oil platform, by providing protection barriers on the perimeter of the region-to-be-protected. In a preferred implementation, the HPB system is made up of individual 50-foot long protection barrier units connected together in spans to block access to a particular region by unauthorized watercraft. The connection device that connects adjacent 50-foot long protection barrier units to each other is called a connector, and which is described in detail in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655.

The HPB according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1 (top perspective view), whereby it is different from the embodiments described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655, with respect to braces 175A′, 175B′ that together form a V-shaped structure. The braces 175A′, 175B′ are connected at one end to the end pontoons 170A, 170C, respectively, instead of being connected directly to the beam 110. The other end of the braces 175A′, 175B′ are connected to the middle pontoon 170B, just like the braces utilized in the embodiments described in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655. The connection of the braces 175A′, 175B′ to the pontoons 170A, 170B and 170C provides for a stable and durable barrier structure, without requiring direct connectivity of the V-shaped structure to the beam 110. This provides for a greater angle for the V-shaped structure, which may be advantageous for barriers of certain lengths (e.g., 50′ or less in length).

In more detail, FIG. 1 shows that the ends of the braces 175A′, 175B′ are connected to brackets 160, whereby the brackets are utilized to rigidly connect the pontoons 170A, 170C to the beam 110.

A second embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2-6, which show various features of a gate barrier 200 that includes a truss 210. The gate barrier 200 may be utilized with non-gate barriers to provide protection over a large region, whereby the non-gate barriers may be constructed as described above with respect to the first embodiment or as described in the various embodiments provided in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,651, or whereby the non-gate barriers may be any conventional harbor protection barrier.

The gate barrier 200 includes a truss structure 210, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The truss structure 210 includes two vertical truss sections 310, 320 and two horizontal truss sections 330, 340, which are connected together to form a box-like structure (see FIG. 3). The truss sections are preferably made of stainless steel pipe, such as Schedule 40 steel, or carbon steel. Preferably, 3″ Schedule 40 pipes are used for the main truss members, and 1.25″ Schedule 40 pipes are used for the cross bracing members. A preferred density of the steel is 0.288 lb/in³. Bracing is preferably done with X-bracing for the horizontal truss sections 330, 340, and with Z-bracing for the vertical truss sections 310, 320. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other types of bracings and pipe types and sizes may be utilized while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The truss 210 forms a frame for a gate portion (middle portion) of a gate harbor barrier 200, to thereby provide stability and structural integrity (rigidity) for the gate harbor barrier 200. Because the gate harbor barrier 200 floats on the water (by way of pontoons), it experiences wind and current loading on a continuous basis. Additionally, in extreme weather conditions, the truss 210 helps the gate harbor barrier 200 deal with the strong forces acting upon the gate harbor barrier 200. The truss 210 transmits (e.g., absorbs and spreads out) loading due to such unwanted forces, while at the same time allowing an opening in the gate harbor barrier 200 for boats or other types of watercraft to pass through.

As shown in FIG. 4, the truss 210 is situated around gate portion 410 of the gate harbor barrier 200, whereby the gate portion 410 can open and close in most weather conditions.

Referring back to FIGS. 2 and 3, the top and bottom vertical sections 330, 340 of the truss 210 are preferably fitted onto the left and right horizontal sections 310, 320 of the truss 210, and then preferably bracketed in place (e.g., by bolts or the like). In one possible implementation, the ends of the top and bottom horizontal sections 310, 320 of the truss 210 are ‘male’ portions that fit into ‘female’ portions on the top and bottom of the left and right vertical sections 330, 340 of the truss 210, and then once fitted into place, they are bolted together to provide a strong, tight truss structure.

Similar to the other non-gate HPBs described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655, the gate harbor barrier 200 is preferably 50 feet long, so that it can be used at any portion of a harbor barrier made up of a plurality of 50 feet long HPBs connected to each other by way of connectors. Other lengths may be contemplated while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Unlike the non-gate HPBs which have three (3) pontoons, the gate harbor barrier has four (4) pontoons: two large inner pontoons 250, 252, and two small outer pontoons 254, 256. This is the case since there cannot be a pontoon in the middle of the gate harbor barrier 200, which would otherwise block boats from passing through the gate in the middle portion of the gate harbor barrier 200.

The two large inner pontoons 250, 252 preferably are of the same size as the large middle pontoon of the non-gate HPBs, and the two small outer pontoons 254, 256 preferably are of the same size at the small outer pontoons of the non-gate HPBs. The four pontoons 250, 252, 254, and 256 are shown best in FIGS. 4 and 5. Each of the large inner pontoons 250, 252 is preferably 18 feet in length, and has a 90 ft³ volume, and each of the small outer pontoons 254, 256 is preferably 6 feet in length and has a 30 ft³ volume. Other sizes and lengths may be contemplated while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. The pontoons used for the gate harbor barrier 200 are preferably light-weight urethane pontoons such as the ones described in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655, but they alternatively may be conventional metal pontoons if weight and buoyancy height and level are not major issues.

As shown in FIG. 4, a gate 410 is provided in a middle region of the gate harbor barrier 200, whereby the gate 410 is configured to horizontally swing open out towards the threat side, in order to allow boats to pass into and out of a protected region (in an alternate implementation, the gate 410 swings open inwards towards the friendly side). The preferred opening direction of gate swing is shown by way of the arrow 412 in FIG. 4.

The gate 410 is preferably pivotably connected to a left-side beam 420 of the gate harbor barrier 200, to allow the gate 410 to pivot open or closed with respect to a pivot point. The gate 410 is preferably latched to a right-side beam 430 of the gate harbor barrier 200, whereby a latch structure 418 allows the gate 410 to be releasably connected to the right-side beam 430 to provide a closed state when the gate is in a latched position (as shown in FIG. 4). The gate 410 is preferably an FRP component, just like the left- and right-side beams 420, 430; in an alternative configuration, it is constructed of stainless steel or carbon steel. The preferred density of the FRP components is 0.005 lb/in³, but other densities may be contemplated while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.

FIG. 4 also shows rigging 455 that is used to provide a structural stability of the coupling of the truss 210 to the rest of the gate harbor barrier 200, whereby that rigging 455 is preferably wire rope rigging. The truss 210 is preferably 17.5 feet wide, 20 feet tall, and 5.5 feet deep when coupled to the gate harbor barrier 200, which means that the bottom horizontal portion of the truss 210 is preferably 5.5 feet beneath the waterline. This provides an additional level of stability to the truss 210 as it is coupled to the gate harbor barrier 200, since a portion of it is disposed within the body of water. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that different sized trusses, and different displacement levels of the truss, may be contemplated while remaining within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The depth of the bottom horizontal portion of the truss 210 is such that it does not interfere with the bottom surface of boats passing through the gate. In other words, the draft of boats that pass through the gate is less than the 5.5′ depth of the truss 210. This will allow standard security boats to pass into and out of the gate.

The rigging 455 includes three top-left-side wire ropes, with the left and right wire ropes on the top-left-side of the truss 210 being coupled to left and right ends of the left-side large pontoon 250, and with the middle wire rope on the top-left-side of the truss 210 being coupled to a top surface of the left-side beam 420. The rigging 455 further includes three top-right-side wire ropes, with the left and right wire ropes on the top-right-side of the truss 210 being coupled to left and right ends of the right-side large pontoon 252, and with the middle wire rope on the top-right-side of the truss 210 being coupled to a top surface of the right-side beam 430. The wire ropes are preferably made of steel, and are capable of being tensioned to a desired amount, to provide a required stability to withstand a tension force of 4,000 pounds or more on the gate harbor barrier 200. Other rigging configurations than the ones shown in the drawings may be contemplated, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, FIG. 5 shows a gate barrier structure 200 with a different type of rigging used for the truss 210.

Not shown in FIG. 4 is a net structure, whereby such a net structure is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 shows the gate barrier structure with nets, and FIG. 6 shows a plurality of harbor protection barriers connected to each other by way of connectors, to form a lengthy protection barrier system 600, whereby a gate barrier structure 200 is provided to allow ingress and egress with respect to a protection region, and whereby non-gate barriers 610 are also utilized in order to protect a large area. In the harbor protection system 600 shown in FIG. 6, a net single may span several adjacent non-gate harbor protection barriers 610, without requiring one net per harbor protection barrier.

Referring back to FIG. 5, a first net structure and net are provided on a top surface of the left-side beam 420, a second net structure and net provided on a top surface of the right-side beam 430, and a third net structure is provided on a top surface of the gate 410. In an alternative implementation, a single net is used instead of the separate first and second nets. Net stantions and net support stantions are provided in the preferred implementation of the second embodiment, in a similar manner to the way such components are provided in non-gate HPBs described in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/621,655, and thus they will not be described herein in detail for the sake of brevity.

Preferably, the inner end of the first net is disposed close to the leftside outer end of the second net, whereby that distance may be 6″ to 1′ in one possible implementation. Similarly, the rightside outer end of the second net is preferably disposed close to the inner end of the third net, whereby that distance may be 6″ to 1′ in one possible implementation. Other net separation distances may be contemplated while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The truss 210 is also preferably coupled to the gate barrier structure 200 by way of brackets extending out from inner side surfaces of the two large middle pontoons 250, 252, whereby the truss 210 is bolted to the large middle pontoons 250, 252 at these bracket locations. That coupling is preferably done at a location on the vertical side truss portions 310, 320 that extends just above (e.g., 6″ to 1′) the waterline. Again, like the use of the wire ropes, this provide a strong, sturdy gate barrier structure 200 that can readily withstand boat attacks and bad weather conditions. In an alternative configuration, the truss 210 is bolted to either or both of the left- and right-side beams 420, 430 by way of brackets. In yet another alternative configuration, the truss is bolted to at least one of the middle pontoons 250, 252 and to at least one of the left- and right-side beams 420, 430. One or more brackets that are attached to both the inner pontoons 250, 252 and the left-side and right-side beams 420, 430 may be utilized in yet another alternative configuration, to allow for the truss 210 to be bolted in place in a stable manner.

To provide an additional level of stability to the gate barrier structure 200, a wire rope may be used to couple the friendly-side end of the left-side large middle pontoon 250 to the friendly-side end of the left-side small end pontoon 254, and a wire rope may be used to couple the friendly-side end of the right-side large middle pontoon 252 to the friendly-side end of the right-side small end pontoon 256, to thereby provide an additional bracing for the gate barrier structure 200. FIG. 5 shows wire ropes 510, which provide an additional level of structural stability for the gate barrier structure 200. Additional wire ropes may be provided on the threat side of the pontoons similar to how it is done on the friendly side, to provide an additional level of structural integrity, if desired.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the gate 410 opens up by way of an electronic signal that causes a wire rope/pulley winch structure 470 to pull the gate 410 open, whereby the electronic signal causes the winch structure 470 to turn in one direction (e.g., clockwise) in order to pull the gate 410 open to a 90 degree angle. Other opening angles (e.g., 70 degrees to 120 degrees) may be contemplated, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention). Similarly, to close the gate 410, an electronic signal causes the winch structure 470 to pull the gate 410 closed, whereby the electronic signal causes the winch structure 470 to turn in another direction (e.g., counterclockwise) in order to pull the gate 410 closed. In the closed state, the gate 410 either automatically latches shut, or is physically latched shut by an operator.

The electronic signal may correspond, for example, to one or more RF or IR signals output by a remote control device in the direction of the gate barrier 200. The electronic signal may be one or more pulses output at a particular frequency or at a particular sequence of frequencies, whereby a receiver (not shown) on the gate barrier 200 receives these pulses, decodes them, and opens/closes the gate 410 accordingly.

In addition to the advantages discussed previously, the truss 210 provides a level of stiffness to the gate barrier 200, so that the hinge portion and the latch portion of the gate barrier 200 will not break down over time due to external forces, such as those caused by turbulent sea states.

Other types of opening and closing mechanisms may be utilized while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. A piston (or electronic actuator) coupled to the gate at the hinged end may be used to cause the gate to open and close under electronic control.

In a third embodiment, the gate 410 may be configured to open straight upward (vertically) instead of straight across (horizontally), whereby a wire rope/pulley mechanism that is coupled to the gate and to the top horizontal portion 330 of the truss 210 may be utilized to achieve such movement of the gate 410.

In a fourth embodiment, referring now to FIG. 7, instead of having a gate that opens either vertically or horizontally between left-side and right-side beams 420, 430, there is instead provided a truss 210′ with its own gate structure 700, whereby the gate structure 700 of the truss 210′ pulls down from the top of the truss 210′, to provide a closed gate harbor structure, and whereby the gate structure 700 of the truss 210′ pulls up to thereby provide an opening for boats to pass through. Therefore, the truss 210′ provides both a gate function and a stability function. The gate structure 700 may be similar to gates used for stores in malls, in which the gate electronically opens upwards in a folded manner, and closes downward in an unfolded manner, and whereby the gate is preferably of a metal construction made up of vertically-positioned and horizonally-positioned metal pipes rigidly coupled to each other, whereby the metal pipes are preferably stainless steel or carbon steel components. FIG. 7 shows the gate structure 700 in the closed position, positioned just above the water line 710, to thereby block boats from passing through.

For each of these electronic open/close mechanisms described above, a manual backup system is preferably provided, to allow for the gate barrier to be opened and closed even when the electronic system fails.

Thus, different embodiments of a protection gate barrier module and a protection barrier module have been described according to the present invention. Many modifications and variations may be made to the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, while the truss is described in the second embodiment as being a steel structure, it may alternatively be constructed out of FRP for some or all components of the truss, in order to provide a lighter-weight gate barrier structure. While this structure may not be as sturdy as a gate barrier structure having a steel truss, it may be useful for certain situations where weight is a major factor. 

1. A protection apparatus that is configured to float on a body of water, comprising: a first composite-based barrier structure, the first composite-based barrier structure configured to hold a first net in place; a second composite-based barrier structure, the second composite-based barrier structure configured to hold a second net in place; and a third gate structure provided between the first and second composite-based barrier structures and respectively coupled at first and second ends to the first and second composite-based barrier structures, wherein the protection apparatus protects an area in the body of water or abutting the body of water from waterborne craft, and wherein the protection apparatus allows passage into and out of the area in the body of water by way of the third gate structure.
 2. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: at least one pontoon coupled to the barrier structure and configured to act as a floating component for the protection apparatus when the protection apparatus is placed in the body of water.
 3. The protection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one pontoon includes at least four pontoons, wherein a first pontoon is coupled to a portion of the barrier structure adjacent to one end of the barrier structure, wherein a second pontoon is coupled to a portion of the barrier structure adjacent to an opposite end of the barrier structure, and wherein a third and a fourth pontoon are coupled to a portion of the barrier structure corresponding to a middle region of the barrier structure.
 4. The protection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first and second pontoons are of a first length, and wherein the third and fourth pontoons are of a second length greater than the first length.
 5. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the barrier structure includes a first beam that spans an entire length of the first composite-based barrier structure, and a second beam that spans an entire length of the second composite-based barrier structure, and wherein the first and second beams are a composite-based structure.
 6. The protection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the protection apparatus is in a range of 40 to 50 feet in length.
 7. The protection apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: a plurality of net holding units coupled to the first and second beams and disposed above the first and second beams when the protection apparatus is placed in the body of water, the plurality of holding units configured to hold the first and second nets in place on the protection apparatus and to provide support for the first and second nets when the first and second nets are subject to normal and/or tangential forces.
 8. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the composite-based durable barrier structure is a fiberglass reinforced plastic durable barrier structure.
 9. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a truss provided around the third gate structure, the truss providing a structural integrity to the protection apparatus.
 10. The protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the truss comprises: first and second vertical members; and first and second horizontal members, wherein the first and second vertical members and connected to the first and second horizontal members to thereby form a rectangular-shaped truss.
 11. The protection apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising: X-shaped bracing provided on the first and second horizontal members; and Z-shaped bracing provided on the first and second vertical members.
 12. The protection apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the truss is a steel member made of steel pipe.
 13. A protection apparatus that is configured to float on a body of water, comprising: a left-side barrier structure, the left-side barrier structure configured to hold a first net in place; a right-side barrier structure, the right-side barrier structure configured to hold a second net in place; and a third gate structure provided between the left- and right-side barrier structures and respectively coupled at first and second ends to the left- and right-side barrier structures, wherein the protection apparatus protects an area in the body of water or abutting the body of water from waterborne craft, and wherein the protection apparatus allows passage into and out of the area in the body of water by way of the third gate structure.
 14. The protection apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising: a truss provided around the third gate structure, the truss providing a structural integrity to the protection apparatus.
 15. The protection apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the truss comprises: first and second vertical members; and first and second horizontal members, wherein the first and second vertical members and connected to the first and second horizontal members to thereby form a rectangular-shaped truss.
 16. The protection apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising: X-shaped bracing provided on the first and second horizontal members; and Z-shaped bracing provided on the first and second vertical members.
 17. The protection apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the truss is a steel member made of steel pipe.
 18. The protection apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the left- and right-side barrier structures are composite-based.
 19. The protection apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the left- and right-side barrier structures are composite-based.
 20. The protection apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising: at least one pontoon coupled to the barrier structure and configured to act as a floating component for the protection apparatus when the protection apparatus is placed in the body of water. 